The Tournament
by Smeg699
Summary: The Barden Bellas host a rather different sort of tournament, and the final round has two captains facing off. Serious nerd warning here. Bechloe and Staubrey. If you don't like it, get out and go read something else.


**A/N:** Ok, sorry, you'll have to forgive this bit of geeky diversion. It's all this English dude's fault, he knows who he is, for getting me talking about it. A warning: There's some serious nerdage going on in this little one-shot. You have been warned. Seriously though, it was just a fun piece and I hope you guys like it. Leave me a review and let me know how much of a geek I am if you really want.

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 **The Tournament**

"You guys have been doing this all weekend and I still don't really have a clue what's going on…" Chloe said quietly. Her gaze was directed towards the large table that was currently sitting in what had been the middle of the living at the Bellas House until 3 days earlier. More importantly, it was focused on one of the people standing around said table. Her words, however, were directed to the girl who sat beside her on the couch that had been shoved against the wall since Friday evening after classes had let out.

"Oh my god, Chloe. Seriously… I've explained it to you. Amy explained it to you. Jessica explained it to you twice. And I know for a fact that Beca has explained it at least a dozen times." Stacie said as she threw her hands into the air in exasperation with the redhead. Her gaze, Chloe noticed, may have darted over towards her at the end, but was otherwise riveted onto the table as well, though her eyes were watching the tall blond who was currently standing opposite Beca and looking a little nervous.

Stacie wasn't wrong. Literally every one of the people she'd just mentioned had tried to explain what was going on to her. And not just them. Ashley had gone over the rules with her. Flo had compared it to crossing the border from the Mexico to the US, only instead of big robot things there were tanks. Lily had taken a turn explaining … something. Chloe hadn't heard a word the short Asian girl had said, but had nodded along as though she had. Hell, even Aubrey had explained, in exhausting detail, the point, purpose, and tradition of the game.

Chloe still didn't get it.

Currently occupying the Bellas living room was a large table, according to what she remembered from Ashley's rules talk, it was exactly six feet long by four feet wide. Of course, as Ashley had subsequently pointed out, the rules called for it to be four-by-four, which was why there was tape running widthwise along the board a foot in from each table edge. Aubrey had explained that the board was a relic from a bygone day, bemoaning the epic battles of 40k that had taken place on it over the years.

But Beca had scoffed at the blond, interrupting her story about something called Eldar, and told Bree to get with the times because Warmachine was where it was at. Chloe hadn't had a clue what they were talking about. She knew a little more now. But she still didn't get it.

The table, now properly set up with marks delineating four feet in both width and length, was covered with pieces of hard foam. Of course, you wouldn't have known they were hard foam looking at them. No, Chloe had figured that out when she'd broken one… And then gotten yelled at by everyone. Beca had later apologized, twice, but she'd found out some interesting info at least. Anyway, they were made of a hard foam and painted and covered with grit and stuff to look like hills. A couple even looked like dilapidated ruins and stuff. It was kind of awesome, actually. This part Chloe understood. It was a bit like theater, she liked that.

Also on the table were long pieces of a cloth of some sort. There were two different colors, one was blue, the other green. She'd been told that the green were "forests" and the blue were "water". All of the blue ones seemed to come from a decently sized, roughly circular piece near the middle of the board and head off towards one edge. The forests were placed, according to Stacie, very strategically around the table. Chloe had thought they'd just been placed where they were randomly. There were rules to do with the "forests" and the "lake and river", but Chloe didn't get them either.

All in all, the table was pretty cool looking, Chloe had to admit. It was a forest turned battlefield. That much she understood. Off to either side of the marked area were a bunch of smallish painted metal and plastic figures; some smaller, some larger. Beca's were mostly human looking with a few cool, futuristic robots. Aubrey's were almost mostly human looking, but her robots were bigger and clunkier looking robots.

Warjacks.

Damn! She'd really meant to say warjacks. After she'd been yelled at often enough for calling 'em robots you'd have thought she'd remember that name. They were warjacks. Not robots.

Chloe still didn't get it.

Movement from the table drew her attention as Beca, smiling, took a few steps to one side of the table and reached for her tape measure. Apparently that was a super important part of the game. Chloe had forgotten why.

"Here we go. I'm going to activate my Kaelyssa. She's going to arc Backlash through the Phoenix at your Conquest." Beca said, point at various models on the table and basically talking Greek for all that Chloe understood. Stacie, however, seemed a little upset by the action and had started to move towards the table. She stepped up beside Ashley, who was next to Jessica, watching the battle going on between their current and former captains.

Chloe decided she should support Beca in whatever she was doing too, and stepped up beside Amy on Beca's side of the table. As Chloe approached, Beca carefully measured a line between one of her little robots, err warjacks, and Aubrey's really big one. Beca's face broke out into a huge grin when the tape measure just barely touched the base of Aubrey's big robot. Aubrey, looking very upset with herself because she'd moved it too far forward, took her own tape measure and checked the distance. When she found the same thing that Beca had, it was just within the right distance, her upset look shifted to a nervous one as Beca grabbed the dice and gave 'em a little shake before tossing them at the table. They bounced around a few times before stopping. Eight showed between the two dice and Beca gave a fist pump before speaking, "Alright, Kae's gonna pop her feat now, and now I'm gonna move her… here."

Chloe was still astounded that Beca referred to a little piece of painted metal as "her", but she'd mostly gotten over it. Beside the redhead Amy was sporting a grin as Beca moved her little girl figure back to a place farther from Aubrey's figures. Across the table, the three girls beside Aubrey looked like the blond was in trouble. Amy, having just noticed Chloe, said, "Awww yeah. Looks like Short Stack's gonna ruin Aca-Nazi's day here. It's on now!"

Beca who overheard the remark smirked backwards at the Aussie before noticing Chloe and giving the redhead a genuine smile. Chloe stepped up to the short brunette and stole a quick kiss before stepping back to Amy's side. Beca, for her part, said, "Don't worry babe, Bree's done for here in a sec, then we can go have dinner."

"Keep dreaming, Mitchell, your puny little crossbows can't penetrate solid Khador steel. And just wait till that Conquest goes crazy next turn…" Aubrey said with pure confidence in her voice. But Chloe knew her friend, she'd had years reading Aubrey's facial expressions. The blond was afraid of what was about to happen.

As would later be recounted in the halls of the Bellas House at Barden University, the Aca-Nazi was defeated by Shawshank in a hail of crossbow bolts. That was really all Chloe took away from the end of the game, the end of the "tournament" as the girls called it.

Jessica, who had lost to Beca earlier in the weekend, had explained that Aubrey had underestimated Beca's list. Jess would know, too, because apparently she'd done the same thing. The feisty blond had later given a rather lengthy explanation of how Beca had simply outmaneuvered Aubrey's forces and then, when the time came, struck like a surgeon.

Instead Chloe was too focused on Beca who was gloating and dancing around the table accepting congratulations from the girls on her side before, with possibly the largest smile Chloe had ever seen on her face short of during sex, she accepted Aubrey's post-game handshake.

And if Chloe was being honest, the smile wasn't that much smaller than her sex-face smile. The redhead resolved to rectify that situation as soon as she could.

Chloe still didn't get it.

That didn't stop her from cornering Beca against the edge of the table, however, as the rest of the Bellas filed out towards their rooms to get ready to go out for dinner. The brunette was putting some of her stuff back into her bag and didn't see Chloe approaching until the redhead was almost on her. She turned around just in time to receive a much, much better kiss than the earlier one.

"Well, hello there." Beca said, a few seconds later when they broke apart to breathe. Her hands had, as was Beca's habit, gone right to her hips and were currently gripping her tightly as the brunette steadied herself.

"Hey champ." Chloe said, teasingly. Leaning in again she captured the brunette's lips once more and thoroughly made her presence known. Running her tongue along Beca's lower lip was enough to make the shorter girl's lips part to allow Chloe the access she wanted. Where Beca had been dominate on the table just minutes before, Chloe firmly took charge now and kissed her girl until the brunette was actually moaning into the kiss.

"Jesus, Chloe…" Beca said, her voice husky and her breath coming out in panting gasps when Chloe pulled back. Sliding her hands up into the redhead's shirt, Chloe felt Beca run her nails along the small of her back and purred in delight. After getting her breathing under slightly more control than a moment before, and swallowing twice, Beca said, "If I had known that playing Warmachine got you like this, we'd have had tournaments every week since I took over as captain."

"YOU get me like this, sweetie. I think, before you take this table away, we out to play some Strip Warmachine, I'm pretty sure I could win that one." Chloe said, which instantly put a confused look on Beca's face.

"Strip… Wait, what? I'm not… Chloe, that's like, not even a thing." Beca said, spluttering as was her way when she was flustered. Chloe just smiled and leaned in for another quick kiss. When she leaned back this time, her own hands running up along the brunette's torso, Beca added, "I don't even know how that would work…"

"Oh, well, it would mainly involve me taking all your clothes off then ravishing you on the table. I'll show you what happens when _I_ win the game." Chloe purred as she emphasized the word I. Her hands finally reached their destination and were now covering Beca's tits and squeezing, which drew another moan from the brunette who arched into her hands.

"OY! No sex on the table, you two!" Aubrey's voice cracked like a whip and instantly snapped Beca out of the daze Chloe had put her in. Of course, the redhead had her trapped against the table, so her efforts to move away were futile. Chloe, meanwhile, simply looked over her shoulder at Aubrey and winked.

"That's not what you said last night, Bree…" Stacie's voice said from behind her as the tall brunette stepped up and nuzzled into Aubrey's neck as the blond looked faintly proudly and more than a bit embarrassed at her girlfriend's words.

Chloe just rolled her eyes.

She still didn't get it. But she could definitely find a way to put the table to use.


End file.
